Family nurse practitioner students invited to present research at conference

Research topics include COVID-19 stress among nurses, diabetes education

By California State University, Bakersfield

April 1^st, 2022

Students in California State University, Bakersfield’s family nurse practitioner (FNP) master’s program are not only learning how best to care for their patients but also conducting timely research that could have an impact beyond their exam rooms.

Four research projects conducted by students in the class of 2022 were peer reviewed and selected for poster presentations at the annual Western Institute of Nursing conference happening in Portland, Oregon from April 6 to 9. While the students chose to focus on completing necessary clinical hours and decided not to attend the conference, their work will be on display for attendees to read.

“Our FNP program at CSUB not only trains our students to take care of patients as nurse practitioners and provide more health care accesses, they also learn and conduct research studies on issues that affect local communities,” said Dr. Annie Boehning, an instructor in the program and mentor for student research. “By doing research, they are equipped with skills to promote better health policies in the future.”

All of the FNP students are also nurses working in the Kern County community. The topics covered in their research projects are issues they see firsthand regularly but studying them academically gives them an even greater understanding of how to help.

Those projects are:

“Frontline health care workers coping with stress during the COVID-19 pandemic,” by Krystal Bermudez, Yamilette Iniguez and Tony Uong: Students surveyed frontline health care workers to determine their stress levels during the pandemic and coping strategies to deal with the stress. They found that workers were concerned about the increased patient acuity, their own health and that of their families, a lack of personal protective equipment and understaffed departments. Activities to alleviate stress, like watching TV and exercising, helped but the research supports a need for counseling services for health care staff in addition to positive coping mechanisms.
“Examining the relationship of self-perceived stress and anxiety in parents versus non-parents during the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic,” by Alanna Costello, Jefferson Huot, Ricco Reynolds and Melissa Reynoso: Among 169 survey participants, 96 did not have children and 73 were parents. Their survey found that parents were not significantly more anxious or stressed compared to non-parents, and that women were more likely to report being stressed than men, as were the unemployed compared to the employed. Among parents, there was no significant difference in reported stress between those whose children were attending in-person classes and those doing distance-learning.
“Apprehension of contracting COVID-19 among health care workers during the pandemic versus after the release of the COVID-19 vaccine,” Kirandip Kaur, Amarpal Gill and Bea Verde: Students sought to assess how health care workers’ concerns about getting COVID compared before and after the release of the vaccine. Among the 108 health care workers surveyed, they found there was a 43% reduction in mild and a 36% reduction in moderate apprehension levels after the release of the vaccine.
“An assessment on diabetic education among nurses,” by Amandeep Kaur, Lauren Miller and Brownhilda Gambe: Students wanted to determine if nurses are providing comprehensive education to patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus on diet modification, exercise and medication adherence. After surveying 47 nurses, students found that nurses were not unified in their approach to patient education on diabetic care and that there is room for improvement to help nurses provide comprehensive education to their patients, including on foods, medication, exercises and barriers to diabetic treatments.

FNP student Brownhilda Gambe said she and her group learned a lot from their experience researching diabetes education and nurses. It helped them to understand that the time constraints nurses deal with at work with different patient severity were the main obstacle they face in providing a robust diabetic education to patients.

“It was a great experience conducting this research,” Gambe said, adding that it is exciting “to present this project and bring awareness to the community about the hindrances to providing comprehensive diabetic education to patients to prevent complications from developing based on the data collected in the project.”

Though the students won’t be at the conference themselves, Dr. Boehning will be there to present the work on their behalf.

“Research is important, and students need to learn to conduct their own studies based on the need of the patients, communities and profession,” Dr. Boehning said. “By conducting research studies, they gain knowledge on what has been done and what needs to be done to make positive changes for the future of health care.”